Not That Kind Of Salt

But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt. ~ Genesis 19:26

Matthew 5:13 says “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall it’s saltiness be restored? It is no longer to be good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Salt domes, or evaporites basically form when a body of salt water is not being fed with enough fresh water.  As the water evaporates, salt is left behind and the remaining water becomes super saturated with salt. Carbonates (carbonic acid salt) begin to form, then gypsum (soft mineral) then halite (rock salt).  As this process happens, the crystals form together because they are attracted to each other.  After a while, you have a hard rock formation.  While I was thinking about this process, God told me that is how our hearts work, too.  When we take our focus off of Christ and place it on our selves or our past, we go from being Christ centered, to self centered. When we are self centered, we tend to study less, we don’t really pay attention to the message that we hear because we become complacent in our walk. We would rather feel good, than feel conviction, because we lack joy.  We don’t pray like we should. We are more easily offended and less willing to forgive.  We eventually stop extending grace to others.  Little things that hurt us grow into big things. We become discouraged, then angry. We completely cut ourselves off from people that hurt us (or might hurt us) and from God. Our soured, acidic hearts now have a soft outer shell, a wall-  It’s soft, but it is still a wall. The longer we look back at the source of our pain, our past, the less we drink from the fountain that never runs dry, the harder our hearts become. Eventually, without living water, we become frozen in our walk, frozen in time, and frozen in our growth. Like Lot’s wife we become hardened pillars of salt. 

On the flip side of that, table salt, a.k.a. sodium chloride (NaCl) has a good, strong bond. Just like our heart does with the Holy Spirt at the joy of our salvation.  For salt, the only way to break that bond is to dilute it with water to the point of dissolution and allow contaminates to be mixed in destroying the good bond between Sodium and chloride.  Kind of like NOT holding fast to the truth of the gospel dissolves the bond that our hearts have with the Holy Spirit.  When we allow our bond to weaken, we allow contaminates (sin) to be mixed into our lives. We allow distance and disconnect to form between us and our Heavenly Father.  And we lose our saltiness.  

We must always guard our hearts (Proberbs 4:23).  Be aware of where we are spiritually and why.  God does not condemn us, He forgives us.  Guilt and shame are tools that the enemy uses to try to separate us from the love of God.  Don’t allow the crystals to be formed on your heart or the bond to be weakened with our Father.  Know his word, and be vigilant against diluting the truth.